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Last nights gig with BLOCKBUSTARZ was at The Dreadnought in Bathgate. Very Busy i think 150 tickets sold so almost full. Great audience as always and just a real fun night of Glam songs. This is now the 3rd year in a row we've played the Sat before Xmas and we were already booked for next year. Ticket deal but we did better than our normal fee so that was a huge bonus at the end of the night. Back there today for a private party so all the gear barriered off and locked away so no load out last night or load in today. I felt like a proper pro musician last night with no packing up to do. Just turn up and play and then walk away at the end of the night. 🤩 Sound guy who is top notch and another bassist came in at break and said i was too loud on stage and nothing going thru PA. At the back where he was it was booming. Turned it down for 2nd set but couldn't really hear myself on stage so i ended up playing harder and getting sore fingers. Not good when i have a gig this afternoon. Going to look at a decent IEM set. I had been playing around with the Mesa TT800 amp during the week as i was finding last few gigs i was bass heavy on my tone so went back to the manuals "instant gratification" setting but didn't get time to set the volume level on stage. Had a slight change of bass during the night. 1st set Sandberg VM4 because it matched the sparkly purple outfit i was wearing that set. 2nd set Sandberg MarloweDK because it looked more Christmassy in red and white for the Xmas songs especially the Wizzard one where i also adorned a nice Santa cape. The things we do for our audiences 🤩 Keeley compressor into Shure wireless then Mesa TT800 and Mesa SW210/115 cabs. No pics as yet but hopefully will get a few up later. Not sure how this afternoon will go as i'm not really a fan of private birthday parties as not everyone there will be into Glam rock and we'll end up getting the numpties asking for Girls Aloud or Ed Sheeran even tho were fully Glammed up. Oh well them's the breaks Dave

Just back from our usual 2 nights at Trading Boundaries Christmas gigs. Lovely intimate atmosphere as always and only just under an hour’s drive away from home. Both nights went very well and I always feel Xmas is here on these occasions. Happy Christmas everyone, my best wishes to you all 😊

Acoustic gig at The Harley Motor, 5:30-8:30. We're basically background music , however this is always a good gig. I'd say attendance was respectable. We had a few good moments. Daryl

Just back from a gig for a small company’s Christmas party in Beverley. Our acoustic duo played for them at a summer party last year, but this time we played as an electric three piece, adding a drummer. The gig was in an upstairs function room of a large pub, so it meant dragging all the gear up two flights of narrow stairs which was a pain, but plenty of space to set up with only 50 guests. Set up by 7pm so we went for a walk up the road to our regular venue The Sun Inn where some friends were playing and had a chat and a drink there. Our duo is playing there tomorrow afternoon, and it seemed to have a completely different feel to it on a Saturday night with lots of people milling around - maybe just the Xmas thing. Back to our venue and there was a Ska band setting up in the main room downstairs, but we didn’t catch them as we had to do our first set. It went well, got a few up dancing with some well chosen tunes. Second set went even better, with most of the guests on the dance floor. I was just winging it, my mate on guitar shouting out the songs, some of which we managed to join together to keep them dancing. Dep drummer was great, not too loud and good tempos. Company boss seemed very pleased with us, so may hopefully get the gig next year! Used a replica P-bass into my Rumble 500 combo. No pics of the gig, just one as we finished soundchecking.

Well, 2024, it's been a blast! Last gig of the year, playing with Nine Lives at the Kirkie Bar in Elgin. When we arrived we were shown to a rather small alcove which had a dirty big Christmas tree in the corner of it. Didn't throw a diva strop and worked around it - the sort of space that the drummer has to move cymbal stands out of the way in order to extricate themseves from behind the drumkit! Anyway, we managed to squeeze ourselves in and got going. Wasn't super busy but the folk who were there were into it and up for a dance. After the gig, we got a lot of nice comments from people, including wishing we had been the band the night before when it was apparently heaving - "Mad Friday" and all that. Guy behind the bar was very enthusiastic and expressed an interest in booking us again, so it looks like we passed the audition. 4 weeks of nothing now! It's been a good year - new singer has settled in well and we're very happy with both her performance and how she's fit into the band socially. 2025 to-do list - freshen up the set list with new songs! Gear used - the Epiphone gang - the Les Paul (not very) Standard followed by the Thunderbird '64.

Our last gig of the year and traditionally our biggest. That's me on mandolin & vocal, though I feel little shame as we had a very talented friend join us on double bass for the night.

Xmas gig with local covers band 'Too Much Fun' at Thames Side Brewery in Staines last night. Fantastic evening.... 100+ punters in, all up for a sing and dance and enjoying our varied set of 60's/70's classics.... and there were some interesting ales/ciders on tap alongside some good food! 😉👍 Cool For Cats and Rhythm Stick went down especially well.... as did the Xmas songs (Slade/Wizzard)... but surprise of the night was seeing pensioners rocking the dance floor for our mental encore of Pretty Vacant... 😲🤣😂 I played my Jap Fender FSR 70's P, thru my Haz pedal, GK Legacy800 and Genz 2x12 last night and had some lovely compliments afterwards on both my sound and my playing, which sealed the deal nicely. 🎸👍😎🥰

A home turf gig last night at the Brit Club for our blues band Purple Haze (a two minute walk for me). Considering a lot of people have gone home for Xmas we still managed a good crowd, even people who were going out on flights early in the morning turned up, so we seem to be getting a bit of a following. Played for two hours, one hour of which was new material, mostly old blues standards, kept the fav Hendrix numbers in of course. On the MM bass I replaced the electronics with just a Delano Xpure (I know I know!) but in my opinion the raw sound of the pickup is an improvement! The fretless jazz got an outing as well. New Charles Guitar trem on the Strat, so lots of wammy use as the guitarist made the best of it, plus new compensated saddles on the Tele. All sounded good and have to say Charles Guitars make some good parts. Did a slowed down version of Hey Joe with an almost country beat (Otis Taylor style) and slide guitar which went down a treat. Last gig of the year and a fun one at that.

Last gig of the year for us, and indeed our last booked gig (see later) - time to get some diary action for 2025 (not dairy action, that's a particularly specialised area of Pornhub). The Walsgrave in Coventry, a goodly size stage area (albeit flat to the floor). I took the acrylic bass which I'd just sorted shimming the neck on, or at least I thought I had - some notes were choking out on the bottom two strings so I did some revised finger positionings with only a few cockups. Used the Sei for most of the gig. And me committing "Come up and see me". This is as good a reason as anyone needs for me not to be principal lead vocalist. One audience member came up to me after the gig and asked me where the subs were. He was rather surprised that everything (well, all the vocals plus kick drum) was running through the Alto TS408s. Turned out he was the drummer for Flat Badger, a Coventry band. When I got home, after settling down for a bit, I thought I'd check that the gigs page displayed correctly as we have no gigs - it's supposed to show a message saying we'd got no gigs and to check back, but it showed column headings with no content. This was due to a change I'd made a little while ago, so at 3am I was unable to go to bed without having sorted it out first (didn't take too long though).

Two DB gigs this weekend. First was in a quirky little pub that was totally empty before 10:15 and then as full as an egg after. Lots of singing, dancing and merriment. One guy had to be talked down from a chair. Second gig was swanky cocktail bar from 6-8. Alongside a healthy fee I was given a couple of whisky sours (my favourite). Polite applause but a quiet night apparently.

Just back from Thurmaston Conny Club (it's more like a big social club than anything political). Good gig, although the git/vox was very croaky. That meant more singing for me and the drummer - I actually quite enjoy singing now. Nice and busy. A few dancers, but most people just appreciating the music. I took my Sire and was going to swap over to it later on, but had so much fun with my Sterling Sub Ray5 (upgraded with Retrovibe Stinger '77 preamp) that it stayed out all night. The 2-band preamp is great and a lot easier to tweak than the Sire's 3-band with swept mid. The usual Fender Rumble v3 500 combo goodness. Feet were rock steady in the Solovair boots. I forgot to take any photos though. Naughty McDonalds on the way home because Mrs Norris and younger Norrisson were feeling hungry (you can't beat a quarter pounder imho) Best compliment was from a chap in the loo, swaying rather a lot at the urinal next to me... "great hair" 😂

Last gig of the year last night for us. Cracking little bar called Vandal Bar in Warrington. Bit different to the usual wedding venue and a really up for it crowd, albeit small party of 50. This was wedding #68 for the year for us but it was the first one we’ve ever done through an agency and all went well, got the payment through nice and fast this morning so all ‘round a good first experience. It was a bit of a squeeze to fit in the corner but my ‘rig’ was my Gretsch into my B3, direct into the PA, 64 Audio IEMs and brown DM Thurston boots, oh and my SM58 and Tama kick pedal.

Mainly fun pub gig thanks to the cheerful audience. Once again I had to rectify the PA settings to stop every bass note blooming and booming in the room *sigh*. One of the guitarists is prone to reading stuff on the Internet and adopting it as gospel without actually checking that it sounds good. For a while he was in the habit of having his amp ‘backwards’ for a better spread of sound. That can work if you have a closed-back cab and a reasonable area of solid rear wall to point it at, but he has an open-back combo which is often placed well away from any wall or in front of soft furnishings! During last night’s first set I noticed that his guitar sound was much more honky and middly than usual. Turned out he had read that Greg Koch turns mids and presence right up, treble and bass right down, so he had done the same on his Quilter, which is his spare but for some reason he was using through his valve combo speaker. Although it’s true that a guitar sound that works in a mix may sound unpleasant when soloed, his sounded atrocious in the live mix. I was polite enough to call it ‘odd’ rather than ‘bad’, but at the end of the day I am a dep in the band and I can only keep my own side of the street clean.

Singer (one of our regular lead vox crew) arrived 15 mins before we were due to start due to public transport issues, and was obviously stressed, bless her. I'd managed to lose my IEM headphones at a rehearsal (for our NYE gig earlier in the week) but didn't spot the loss till the gig, so I made do with standing next to the PA speaker for monitoring. Dep drummer was playing with us for the first time and we'd not rehearsed with him, and the venue, one of our pub residences, was rammed with Christmas party revellers and perhaps busier than it's ever been. So what could possibly go wrong?! 😅 There were unsurprisingly a few loose ends! But we managed to get by with eye contact and put on a decent show which seemed to go down well, and overall it was a fun gig. A large receptive audience can clearly make up for a multitude of sins it seems! A little clip of the gig and venue. Happy Christmas all!

Not so much of a "gig last night" but today marks 35 years of playing live! With all the occasional rubbish that life throws at us all, it's been the one constant source of sanity. Across 16+ bands, several countries and several instruments (I reckon 80% of them have been on bass), it's been amazing. I'd be surprised if I manage a 2nd 35yrs and I definitely have reached a stage where I enjoy the small local pubs as much as the ones that sound more impressive. 22nd December 1989 was pretty woeful and I am so grateful we didn't have the internet but it will always be a fond memory because it set the wheels in motion for what was to come.

Uh oh - shots fired!

Well I’m glad you guys are getting to the bottom of the VPN issue whilst I’m googling how to survive in prison

OK, start with a design spec, what you need and what would be desirable. I started wanting a simple single speaker design with a flattish extended upper response to cover up to 8kHz and a decent off axis HF. I could tolerate a peak in response at 3kHz or above but it needed to be well damped (broad and flat) rather than a sharp peak. Most important was that I was prepared to sacrifice a drop in bass response below 80Hz but I needed the 2nd harmonic octave 80-160Hz to be ruler flat, desirable was that the roll off below 80 Hz was fairly smooth. Desirable also was high efficiency, My aim wa s to be able to play along with other people up to but short of a full drumkit. This was to play at home with friends but I was also looking for something that might work at an open mic. My target was 110db or better. The 80-160Hz thing was absolutely crucial though. This speaker was to test a theory I'd held for a long time, that a rich rendition of the second harmonic was 90% subjectively of what we hear as 'bass' Time to select a driver. I knew I probably wanted a 6" cab from instinct, anything smaller was likely to lack efficiency and an 8" driver was going to need a bigger cab but I included a search of smaller and bigger speakers. Never trust intuition The first thing I'll look at is the frequency response graph. This is really going to define the sound of the speaker as it determines which harmonics we are going to hear. Particularly in the 6" size there are quite a few specialist mid-range drivers which won't handle bass and a few dedicated bass drivers with thicker heavier cones What I also know is that the size of a cab, at least in the Goldilocks region is defined by two factors Qts and Vas. Qts (Q for the whole speaker) is related to how much control the speakers magnet, electrical characteristics plus the mechanical components have over the cone movement. Knowing Q also gives me some idea of the probable. bass response. Low Q means tight control of the cone movement and bass being restricted, high Q means the cone movement is less well controlled and you will get a bass boost towards the bottom end of the frequency range. For a flat response I need Q to be in the range 0.3 to 0.6 and 0.4 is the Goldilocks point.Vas is a weird concoction of parameters but is the volume of air with the same mechanical characteristics as the speaker. My eventual cab size is going to be close to Vas so anything too big or small is out, With Qts I'm halfway to knowing the frequency response and with both Q and Vas I can work out the cab size in my head. So now I'm looking for a speaker that will do 80-8khz, reach 110db ideally with a modest amp and do all that in a cab of around 10l and I spend a couple of hours looking at every major brand available in the UK offerings of 6" drivers simply eliminating any that don't fit this spec. Mainly that involves looking at everything Lean Audio and Blue Aran offer. It's surprising how few drivers fit that sort of brief. The majority sacrifice efficiency for bass response or don't have the extended upper response that I wanted. I ended with a short list of around 10, none of them perfect and I then put those into Winisd to model them with a bit more accuracy and see how far I could stretch the design to make them do what I wanted. At this point I knew I'd have to compromise and the datea was going to tell me exactly what the compromises would be. Essentially that was mainly swapping efficiency for bass response only one speaker was going to be loud enough, all of the others would give more bass than the Fane but would compromise the top end response with their heavier cones and longer coils. I was going to have to sacrifice something like 3db or be fairly smart about the cab design to get the Fane to behave down to 80Hz. At this point I've got the best three drivers up on screenand I'm running two models of each. One is the Winisd recommendation and the other is the one I'm trying different cab sizes and tunings with. Eventually I've just got the FAne left and the issue is the Fane's resonant frequency of 111Hz which is too high. I know I can get a bit more bass by putting it in a cab which is a bit bigger than the Winisd suggested size but if I make it too big then it will quickly cease to be flat around 80Hz I also know I can shape the response down below 111Hz by careful tuning of the cab. I ended up with a 10l cab and 87Hz tuning and acheived my design spec. The cost was a unusually big reduction in power handling between 90-200Hz due to over-excursion. The Fane sacrifices excursion for efficiency so I was expecting that. At this point I was expecting to use the cab with a 20W amp so that was fine. the cab as designed will start distorting at about 20-30W mainly by compressing the bass but will operate safely up to 50W or maybe a smidgin more. I use mine nowadays with a 130W Gnome but roll off the bass control by 3dB on the Gnome if I'm running it flat out. Putting it on a floor back against a rear wall more than resores that 3db of roll off. 50W is enough to give the 110db I wanted from the cab. So there you go, in designing this cab I looked at maybe 100 drivers, shortlisted and modelled 10 and worked in detail on three or four before ending up with what is a simple but remarkable little cab. It sounds long winded but I've done this so many times I can pretty much hear the final cab in my head just from a set of figures, shortlisting took a couple of hours and modelling the cabs a couple of evenings. During Covid and lockdown it was good fun especially when I plugged in a proper big amp for the first time and turned it up to see just how far this thing could be pushed

My practice and recording amp:

No wonder scammers are having a field day out there, with folk this gullible!

Very impressive that you can play the bass line to Rhythm Stick! Definitely one of the more challenging ones to master out there and not one I've got under my belt, by any means!

Not just prints. I used to live near this place - the most unusual combination of Indian furniture/homeward, restaurant, venue and Roger Dean gallery where you can pick up an original piece (plus limited edition prints). Cool place to visit if you find yourself with spare hour in rural Sussex!

Despite having preferred Gibsons and other s-s basses since I started playing, I've got mixed feelings on this. Here's a few random thoughts: When I bought my first bass (a Watkins Rapier) back in the mists of time, I chose it on the basis of what felt most comfortable and looked cool without even knowing that different scale-lengths were available; Gibson's shorter-than-Fender-standard scale was/is equally valid and hearing this constantly referred to as 'junior' (i.e. 'not for real men') - notably by Fender - p155es me off; In light of the above, what have Fender's marketing people got for brains? IMHO, they could have a big s-s market running in parallel to their 'standard' scale-length offerings if they didn't dumb-down on their s-s products; Mitigating against my love for Gibsons is the fact that, for me, the strap-balance that comes with having the top strap button at the F12 'sweet spot' is essential (and why I moved away from SGs); Like it or not, the perception that 'proper' bass guitars have to look like a P or a J (with the possible exception of the Gibson SG) is widely held, especially (but not only) outside the bass-playing fraternity; That's why I feel happier playing my Sandberg Cali ll on stage than my equally excellent Vox Starstream Artist, although this may change as my latest band members share my love for the quirky looks and wonderful Aguilar sounds of the Vox; IMHO, the main-stream bass-guitar manufacturers have held back the natural evolution of the s-s bass guitar - Gibson through a mixture of incompetence and dodgy quality control, and Fender presumably in a misguided attempt to preserve the purity of the brand's original DNA. There, glad I've got that lot off my chest 🙂

Two much better photos from last Saturday's In Isolation farewell gig:

I shall miss these thread derailings if it all goes tits up after March 25th.

Cracking gig last night Dave, thoroughly enjoyed it! First time I've seen Blockbustarz, such a good set and energy. As I mentioned, I thought the bass sounded great, I was down at the front and there was no boominess there. Got some pics of you and your Santa cape if you want them posted. Also, Dave wins any footwear contests on here hands down.

And they paid you in bikes. That's a good gig Daryl. Dave

Yes it’s things like this that show me no matter how much I still want to play my Precisions in my bands, playing my Mustangs is the sensible move.

My parents and grandparents looked down their noses at the likes of Cream and The Jeff Beck Group (wasn't even music!!) because they didn't sound like Henry Hall, Billy Cotton and Geraldo. And around it goes.

Roger Dean prints I take it. Very nice.

As long as there are people enjoying music, there is nothing wrong with it.

We have our first NYE gig for ages this month. On the one hand I’m really looking forward to the money and it’s going to be an easy gig (another Retirement village), but because of where me and the singer live (my wife) we can’t get home in the car. We live right in the centre on London and just inside the restricted zone for the fireworks. Will be a long night.

They have music and/or lyrics on them..... ..... and noone cares.....

Would be a good marketing tool as well, plenty of us would I’m sure be happy with that.

Yes indeed! Love my Two Monzas, usually just use the one as most of my gigs are through the PA these days, but they really are quite amazing little units. X😊

I ended up appreciating Dua Lipa thanks to this cover of herself and proving she was making music.

Both my short scale EBMM Stingray and Maruszczyk Jake (P style) have scaled down bodies to keep them visually in proportion with the scale length. I don't know exactly how much but I'd have guessed they're about 7/8ths, which would be in keeping with a figure of 12%ish. I love the fact that they are very obviously Ray and P shaped/sounding because I physically struggle with the full size versions, and this way I don't have to miss out on having those classic looks & tones. I never got on with large bodied basses even before I moved to short scale, so as a result I'd never owned a Fender in the 35 odd years I've been playing. These scaled down shorties are a godsend.

You've gotta laugh! I feel exasperation more than anything else. Oh, and I also had 2 gigs cancelled because both venues decided to redecorate!! I was definitely in 4 bands at the start of this year. I might be in another, but they've never asked me to join. I'm assuming I'm in because I get called for the few gigs the do. So I think I'm ending 2024 in 1 1/2 bands. I'm hoping my, "When one door closes, another opens", theory proves to be true in the New Year! May your 2025 be happy, healthy and prosperous. . . . and there's as much bass playing as you can handle. Cheers guys.

...IN SPACE!!